Baptism of a chid and an elder's response to my objection

by never a jw 23 Replies latest jw experiences

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    Your advocacy extends beyond the particular child to the greater question of child baptism. As noble as that is you cannot prevail. The target is too big, too well entrenched and too well defended. From a strategic perspective you are not scoring points with the elder but adding to the body of evidence that you are an opposer. That is your particular label. You will not be shunned. That treatment is reserved for apostates and other baptised ones targetted for punishment, but you will be discounted, pitied and ignored. Your elder may continue to communicate with you but it is not because he wants to understand your perspective. He already knows you are wrong. It is to keep an eye on you or, better still, keep the lines of communication open so that he may possibly help you to understand his - aka the Watchtower's - perspective. To understand is to believe. What a wonderful outcome that would be, to bring you into the fold to join your wife and daughter.

    I think so long as yours is a confrontational approach the probability that you will be able to penetrate the elder's armour will be near zero. A respectful, logical and long term approach would be more effective but the odds of success still very low.

  • Found Sheep
    Found Sheep

    I understand the anger stage. I was in it for a while, go back in it from time to time. I wrote some e-mails to people, ended up DA myself because they wanted to DF me.

  • Retrovirus
    Retrovirus

    From Gojira's post

    I was 10, and now I wish I never had been baptized!!!! I had extreme pressure from people.

    That to me is the problem with the elder's repsonse. He knows very well that there is heavy pressure within the JW cong, and he knows that this is fuelled with warnings and exhortations in the study articles and conventions. Yet he presents the child's willingness to take the questions as a holy impulse from YHWH that mere men may not interfere with.

    More than disingenious; dishonest.

    Retro

  • aposta-Z
    aposta-Z

    I, myself, REALLY wanted to get baptised at the time. I must have been 13, 14... But also I really wanted to get married at 21... (I did the first, not the latter)

    Would you have us choose for him? - He is totally avoiding the question. No one asked to chose for him. Just allow him time to make his own choice.

    Do they truly believe that Jesus will go... "Well Tommy, You are 12 now... You could have gotten baptised last year. Nothing was stopping you. No paradise for you!"

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit